Comparing Recessions
January 14th, 2009
Alex Tabarrok over at Marginal Revolution gives a great perspective on the current recession in terms of job losses. Everyone keeps claiming this is the worst one ever. Who knows when things will start turning back around, but so far, things aren’t looking any worse than they have before…
It you look at job losses in this recession compared to previous recessions this recession looks very bad but the labor force is much bigger today than in previous recessions. Thus, if you look at the percentage change in employment you get a different story. The Minneapolis Fed crunches the numbers:
and
Of course, this recession is not yet over but this is useful information. We might not like it but recessions are normal.
P.S. Things have been insane since my last blog post. I’ve started two jobs, quit one of them, started a local chapter of America’s Future Foundation, and have gotten engaged. I feel like I’m getting a better hold of things and will hopefully be posting more often (not that it would be very difficult to beat my current pace).
January 14th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Congrats, and welcome back.
Great post…..the 24 hour news day has more positives than negatives, but one negative is that many things, economic fluctuations for one, can be blown out of proportion.
Not to say that the economy is great right now, or that it will be in the short run, but compared to historical markers……we are at least better off than at other times.